I think the idea behind this kind of minimum-security prison isn’t that it’s crazy difficult to escape, it’s that most people incarcerated there are serving sentences that seem less intimidating than the idea of spending the rest of their lives on the run.
A healthy 69-year-old woman serving a 10-year sentence will probably have a chance to live in freedom again some day, especially if she’s eligible for parole. Even if she survived that walk through the desert her future prospects probably aren’t looking a lot better than what she had in store anyway.
